BHS boys hoops makes progress at War on the Floor

WOODLAND HILLS – The Burroughs boys basketball team is spending the summer season focused on progressing as a team, with positive tournament results an added bonus.

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By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

Ridgecrest Daily Independent - Ridgecrest, CA

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

Posted Jun. 25, 2013 at 2:43 PM
Updated Jun 25, 2013 at 2:46 PM

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

Posted Jun. 25, 2013 at 2:43 PM
Updated Jun 25, 2013 at 2:46 PM

WOODLAND HILLS – The Burroughs boys basketball team is spending the summer season focused on progressing as a team, with positive tournament results an added bonus. That's why a pair of weekend losses at Pierce College to conclude War on the Floor – defeats that brought the Burros' tourney record to 2-2 – aren't a source of disappointment.

"I'm not discouraged by not winning those games," said head coach Doug Hayes. "Of course I'd like to win, but we're not going back to the drawing board. They're playing well and we're getting it done with the things that we are working on."

After a pair of wins on Thursday to open War on the Floor, Burroughs lost its final game of pool play on Friday night. The Burros had a first-quarter lead against Fresno Bullard, but succombed to three-time defending Central Section Division I champions' press and eventually lost 69-36.

"That's a group that presses every possession, and there's some things that we're not ready for yet playing against the press," Hayes said. "All we have in is the base set, and we don't have anything in there to deal with switches and traps."

Burroughs lost by 15 to Burbank Bell-Jeff in its final game of the invitational on Saturday morning, struggling against physical play from its opponent. The game was called loosely, and the Burros did not react well to it.

"It was an extremely physically demanding game with a lot of banging going on defensively, and there weren't a lot of good reactions to that contact," Hayes said. "Because of that, our guys were actually anticipating being hit prior to receiving the ball. The guys have to learn that there are good rewards for responding well to the contact."

Late in a back-and-forth first half, a swing in momentum – and on the scoreboard – sunk the Burros. Burroughs led in each of its final War on the Floor games before eventually losing.

"We led in both of those games and had a solid, commanding presence out on the floor," Hayes said. "We did some things well, and there were some things we weren't prepared to look at."

Against both Bullard and Bell-Jeff, Hayes said Burroughs would have switched defenses if those games had been in the regular season. The Burros have stuck with man-to-man defense throughout the summer.

"I am committed to working on our man-to-man game during the summer – we're not going to go to any of our traps or run any of our zone packages," Hayes said. "Man-to-man is always the solid building block of any good defensive scheme."

Offensively, Burroughs is continuing to progress with its motion scheme. Even in defeat, Hayes said the Burros played well offensively in the final two games at War on the Floor.

Page 2 of 2 - "Every game we played in, we played better than decent offensively when we got into our halfcourt set," Hayes said. "For the most part, we dia a fairly good job of communicating and playing within our offense."

Hayes listed Calvin Martin, Matthew and Michael Polman, Tyrone Jones, Biggie Hernandez and Alexander Ledford as the team's top performers at War on the Floor. Burroughs is currently 7-5 this summer, a record not truly indicative of the team's progress over the past few weeks.

"We're not going to take shortcuts just to get summer tournament results. It would be nice, but there aren't CIF champions of summer league," Hayes said. "We have big goals that we talk about on a regular basis when we meet on the road – this is about winning a DSL championship. We want to make sure sure we do ordinary things extremely well."

Burroughs returns to action Friday at the UC Irvine team camp. The Burros will play a minimum of five games in Irvine, with pool play Friday and Saturday and bracket play Saturday and Sunday.